Doctors look for clues on why ‘super survivors’ overcome cancer in first global study
Doctors have begun the first global study of why some people with cancer beat the odds and survive so much longer than expected.
Many cancer specialists have anecdotal stories of patients who have overcome even the most aggressive forms of the disease, despite being given only months to live.
The Rosalind study will now bring together large numbers of ‘super survivors’, allowing scientists to look for clues to why they have responded so well to treatment, while others die.
In the past doctors may have put stark differences in survival down to luck.
But Dr Thankamma Ajithkumar, who is leading the UK arm of the study at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, said the hunt was on for a more scientific reason.
“This is the first time anybody has tried to answer this question why there is a select group of people who do exceptionally well after these dreadful cancers,” he told Sky News.
“We will have a much larger database to say more confidently that this is what is making you live longer.”
The study will focus on some of the most aggressive forms of the disease – extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, the brain cancer glioblastoma, and metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Just 3% to 5% of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis.
‘I never believed I was going to die’
Katherine Webster will be joining the study.
She was found to have a stage four glioblastoma after suffering a seizure on a train. Scans revealed the tumour in her brain was around 8cm across.
Yet after surgery and a course of radiotherapy and chemo all signs of the cancer disappeared.
Her latest scan, in December, showed she only has a small fluid-filled space in the left side of her brain.
“I never believed I was going to die,” she said.
“I just remember coming out of the surgery and saying, ‘I’m going to fight this’.
“Having that positive mental attitude has been really important for me.”
Katherine rows regularly near where she lives in Cambridge. Apart from tiring easily and having an occasional tremor in her hand, she is well.
“The thing that really struck me was the study’s approach,” she said.
“It’s looking at the positive effects, why you survive as opposed to why you get ill, which is the normal default setting for studies these days.
“It synchronised with my approach to the disease.”
Scientists in more than 40 countries – including eight cancer centres in the UK – will take part in the study.
They’ll analyse detailed biological information from more than 1,000 patients and their tumours, comparing genetic mutations, proteins and other factors that may determine their response to treatment.
‘We might find targets for drugs’
Dr Ajithkumar said: “We hope to answer our basic curiosity of why somebody is alive.
“And second, we might find a number of targets for future drugs.”
The study is being run by French biotech startup Cure51, with backing from the venture capital firm Sofinnova.
Read more on Sky News:
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Nicolas Wolikow, Cure51’s co-founder, told Sky News that the aim was to “kill cancer” in 20 years.
“The ambition of the project is to eradicate cancer,” he said.
“If we could unlock these biological mechanisms that are possessed by these survivors and replicate that for the majority of patients, I think we could do it.”
Super survivors who are interested in taking part in the UK arm of the study can get more info at https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/news/trust-backs-international-cancer-study-aided-by-super-survivors/
World
Surreal scenes as foreign soldiers sent to Rwanda alongside Congolese troops as rebels take capital
On the doorstep of Goma – the site of the UN’s biggest peacekeeping mission in the world – there are signs of surrendered soldiers and fierce battles.
As we walked on the road in front of the United Nations’ main base, we stepped around fatigues, rounds and helmets once belonging to the Congolese army fighting the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels.
The rebels now control the strategic city of Goma after fighting for the border post with Rwanda. It sits south of the swathes of mineral-rich mining territory the rebels have been seizing through last year.
Pic: Reuters
We see them packed on the back of trucks still marked by the FARDC logo of the Congolese army.
I ask one man watching from the side of the road what he makes of this extreme shift.
“This is bad!” he says to me discreetly on the side of the road, with our car as cover from the prying eyes of the junior M23 soldiers.
“My family is not good. I am not good – we don’t know what comes next.”
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Watch as M23 rebels take over Goma in DRC
Small groups are meeting the rebels with cheers and clapping.
We cannot tell if it is relief from the Congolese state or a necessary precaution for many who do not want to leave their hometown on the cusp of a new administration.
But before they can settle in and set up a local authority, M23 have time to stop and humiliate their former enemy.
Not just the Congolese troops, but the Romanian mercenaries fighting alongside them.
Pic: Reuters
MONUSCO, the United Nations’s peacekeeping group in the DRC, brokered an evacuation convoy for the paid fighters to go to Rwanda with trucks full of Uruguayan peacekeeping troops watching as M23 led the handover through their newly-captured border.
Pic: AP
As the Romanian men pass through in a single file, they are chastised by M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma who taps them mockingly one by one.
“Come on soldier!” he said. “You were fighting for money – we were fighting for our life!”
Read more:
Hospitals overwhelmed as rebels complete takeover of Goma
Inside the Congolese city overrun by rebels
I corner him as he flags the buses through – could you have come this far without Rwanda’s support?
He tries to keep busy, and after the fourth time I repeat the question, he yells into my face in French:
“We are a Congolese army, we are Congolese! We fight for a fair and noble cause – we are Congolese. We are not helped by Rwanda!”
M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma gave a feverish denial that the rebels are backed by Rwanda
It will take more than a feverish denial to undermine the widely known support of Rwanda for M23 – one that has been condemned at the highest levels of the United Nations and senior diplomats from around the world.
As the “Welcome to Rwanda” sign gets closer, the last Romanian mercenary limps across with a wounded leg flanked by a UN security advisor and an Indian medic.
A surreal sight of a man heading home after fighting a war in a foreign country surrounded by Congolese families fleeing the war at home.
At least 30 people have died and 60 have been injured in a stampede at a Hindu festival in northern India.
Images from the scene in the city of Prayagraj, in Uttar Pradesh state, show bodies being stretchered away and rescuers helping those who were hurt.
All 60 people injured have been taken to hospital, according to local police.
Millions of people were attempting to take a holy bath in the river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival when there was an initial stampede at 1am local time (7.30pm UK time) on Wednesday.
People bathing in the Ganges on Wednesday. Pic: AP
The banks and a bridge over the Ganges full of people on Wednesday. Pic: AP
Authorities said people trying to escape it were then caught in a second – and more serious – stampede at an exit.
Devotees had congregated to bathe at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
Authorities took more than 16 hours to release precise numbers of those injured and killed.
A Rapid Action Force unit, a special team deployed during crisis situations, was sent to the scene.
Security teams helping those injured at the Maha Kumbh festival. Pic: Reuters
People in a state of shock after the deadly stampede. Pic: Reuters
A Rapid Action Force unit was sent to the scene. Pic: APTN
The state’s most senior official, Yogi Adityanath, made a televised statement later on Wednesday, urging those still planning to bathe in the Ganges to do it elsewhere on the riverbank.
“The situation is now under control, but there is a massive crowd of pilgrims,” he said.
Around 30 million people had taken the holy bath by 8am local time on Wednesday, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has spoken to Mr Adityanath, calling for “immediate support measures”, according to the ANI news agency.
Authorities had expected a record 100 million people to visit Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh – “festival of the Sacred Pitcher” – on Wednesday for the holy dip.
It is regarded as a significant day for Hindus, due to a rare alignment of celestial bodies after 144 years.
A woman bathing in the Ganges as part of the festival on Wednesday. Pic: AP
The Maha Kumbh festival, which is held every 12 years, started on 13 January, lasts six weeks, and is the world’s largest religious gathering.
Organisers had forecast that more than 400 million people would attend the pilgrimage site over the course of the festival.
Huge crowds gathered on Tuesday. Pic: Reuters
People arriving for a holy bath on Tuesday. Pic: AP
Authorities have built a sprawling tent city on the riverbanks, equipped with 3,000 kitchens, 150,000 toilets and 11 hospitals.
Stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds can gather in small areas.
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